Carlo Goldoni’s House

The “Casa
di Carlo Goldoni” (Carlo Goldoni’s House) – was built in the 15th
century and has maintained all the features of Venetian Gothic architecture of that period.

Originally
property of the Rizzo family, the palazzo was rented to the Centanni family and
became the center of a flourishing
artistic/literary Accademia in the 16th century.

Towards the
end of the 17th century, Carlo
Alessandro Goldoni – the playwright’s paternal grandfather and a notary
from Modena – took up residence here. Carlo Goldoni himself was born here in
1707 (on February 25th), and the palace would remain the family home until 1719.

In 1914 Aldo Ravà, a famous scholar of 18th
century Venice – together with Count Piero Foscari and Commendatore Antonio
Pellegrini – bought the palazzo from its owner, Contessa Ida Manassero Camozzo,
with the idea of using it to house a museum
dedicated to the name of the great playwright and to the history of Italian theatre.

The project
came to a halt with the outbreak of war, and then in 1931 Ca’ Centanni was donated to the City Council to be restored.
With a slight variation on the original scheme – it was turned into the Goldoni museum and a research center for matters relating to
theatre.

Nowadays, the House of Carlo Goldoni and Library of Theatre Studies (Casa di Goldoni e Biblioteca di Studi Teatrali) is a museum managed by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia which exhibits collections on Goldoni’s life and works, as well as artefacts relating to Venetian theatre.